Man Charged With Shooting Officer To Stand Trial

WILLIAMSBURG — A claim of double jeopardy from a convicted bank robber who stands charged with maiming a city police officer during a standoff was denied Friday in Circuit Court.

Jerry Earl Jones currently is serving a 37-year prison sentence for robbing the Crestar Bank on Jamestown Road on Jan. 15, 1988. At Jones' trial on the robbery charge last summer, Circuit Judge G. Duane Holloway dismissed a charge of attempted capital murder, ruling there was insufficient evidence to prove Jones intended to kill investigator Jay Sexton when he shot him in the leg.

Williamsburg-James City County Commonwealth's Attorney William L. Person Jr., who seemed baffled by the ruling at the time, later presented the maiming charge to a grand jury, which indicted Jones. The case is being heard by Circuit Judge Russell M. Carneal.

On Friday, defense attorney John C. Stephens Jr. argued that Jones has already been tried and acquitted on the shooting charge. He said that since the facts in a maiming case would be the same as the facts in the attempted capital-murder case, it would amount to double jeopardy to try Jones again.

The U.S. Constitution prohibits accused people from being tried a second time on the same charge after being acquitted.

Carneal denied the defense request and set a trial date for March 17.

The shooting of Sexton oc curred near Cedar Grove Cemetery on South Henry Street a few minutes after the robbery. In a statement to police after his capture in Washington, D.C., nearly two weeks later, Jones insisted he was not trying to kill the officer.

"I didn't want to kill anybody," Jones said in the statement. "He fell and I could have killed him, but I didn't want that."

Holloway explained to Person at the earlier trial, "What happened is atrocious, but I don't think you've risen to the level of proof that it was premeditated. It's just as reasonable to assume he was trying to stop the police officer as he was trying to kill him."

Jones, who escaped from a state prison about two months before the Crestar robbery, also is serving 57 years for a 1977 Williamsburg bank robbery and a 1976 Norfolk robbery. He was sentenced to 24 years for the robbery of a jewelry store in York County in late 1987.